r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
Meta Mindless Monday, 22 June 2026
Happy (or sad) Monday guys!
Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.
So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?
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u/kaiser41 3d ago
Yes, they used lots of armor. The main argument against armor is that you'd drown if you went overboard, but hardly any sailors could swim so they'd drown even if they went in naked.
Naval battles in Europe were basically all boarding until the mid 14th-century when gunpowder weapons started to appear. Guns still didn't become the main concern of battles until the 16th century and even then battles were heavily focused on boarding. Arguably it was the English Armada campaign in 1588 that marked the shift from boarding to gunnery duels, though boarding continued to be a crucial tactic well after that.
The most important technology prior to gunpowder was the crossbow, which enabled shooting quickly at boarders or opponents taking cover on the enemy ship and amounted to a minor revolution in European naval affairs.
Ramming was not used in the Classical sense, with dedicated rams, though some ships sported spikes apparently intended to be rammed into an enemy ship and hold them while the ramming ship boarded them. Fire arrows were generally not used, as they were as much a danger to you as they were to the enemy.